Nokia smartphones held 6.6% of the Middle East and African smartphone market.

The IDC has released some numbers for the Middle East and African market in Q2 2014.

Their data shows Nokia smartphones held 6.6% of the smartphone market in the region, down slightly from 7.2% last year, representing around 1.7 million handsets.

The biggest winner in the region was Hauwei, which went from 2.6 to 9.5% of the smartphone market. Samsung dropped from 52.8% to 44.9% but the biggest loser was Blackberry, which went from 12% to 2% of the market in 2014.

At 1.7 out of 7.2 million Windows Phones sales, or around 25%, the MEA market is clearly important for Windows Phone.

Nokia also held 35% of the feature phone market there, or around 13.4 million handsets. This is down from 47% in Q2 2013, suggesting Microsoft Mobile needed to work very fast if they want to convert these consumers to Windows Phone.